The Humbling River
by Cakins
Summary: Toph is becoming fed up with her simple life. She wants nothing more than to go back to her short lived, audacious adventures. She can only hope that Iroh's proposal adds up to more than what looks like. Then again, to Toph, it didn't "look" like much in the first place. [read author's profile bio for more information]
1. Chapter 1

**The Humbling River**

**Chapter I**

* * *

For Toph, the minutes seemed to extend endlessly into hours. Today was really no different from any other day. She laid down on a couch halfway through the day and hadn't moved since. Toph most certainly wasn't tired. Some days she would drift in and out of cloudy sleep, but currently had one ankle over the other, axiomatically barefoot, with her hands tucked back under her head in deep thought. She could and did do everything she wanted or needed to do. Her activities - organizing what possessions she had, cleaning Appa, focusing on her own personal hygiene, and so forth - never lasted the entirety of the day. "You could get a job," was one of the many advising phrases tossed at Toph on a daily basis, of which she had no interest. There was no need to do anything in a household with enough money to buy out servants to do whatever work needed to be done. Even if they didn't have the money they did, there was hardly enough people in the house at any given time to constitute work needing to be done. This did not, however, stop some of the more motivated occupants of the group from accomplishing their own work.

Aang was working with Zuko for the entirety of their free time on rehabilitation plans for every province of every part of the world. Toph had never even heard of most of the places mentioned in their conversations. According to them, "We must make a good impression in our early diplomacy. If anyone thinks of us as too weak, or too aggressive, we will lose much of what we have already achieved." To Toph it was all just a waste of time. She could live on dirt and be happy about it, so why did others have to be treated so delicately? It's great if you can get the firebenders to stop hurling fireballs at everyone wearing green, brown, or blue, but past that politics drifted into a blur. With everything that that duo did, they were only in the city a quarter of the time.

Katara would follow Aang wherever he went, but on occasion even she would get bored enough with constant planning and negotiating to stay in Ba Sing Se. There was nothing Toph hated more than having to listen to Katara rant about whatever it was she ranted about - Toph didn't actually listen to her speeches. Katara would be cleaning up some mess or making some kind of food, but the blind girl was about as interested in her activities as she was in deep-sea diving. Katara was also one of the few people who would prod Toph to actually do something. This was what she hated most. Of all the things she could be doing - working, giving her time to some organization, or really anything productive at all - none of it would offer anywhere close to the same amount of excitement as roaming the world, surviving day-to-day attempting to defeat the previous Fire Lord. One day an overzealous Sokka had even suggested schooling, to which he received the most intense eye contact a blind person could offer. She didn't need to offer him her words in that situation, as her stature alone kept him at bay for the rest of that weekend.

When Katara was at the house it wasn't entirely dreadful for Toph, however. Both Aang and Katara believed in "Public welfare," or some "Do good for others" nonsense such as that. Aang solved domestic problems globally on a daily basis, and Katara had founded an organization titled The Blue Salve, which essentially provided emergency care for those in need. At least Katara found the name to be clever.

Sokka spent much of his time in the Southern Water Tribe, rebuilding it to what it was before the war with his newly recovered family. Suki and Ty Lee had returned together to Kyoshi Island. Toph now was adamant that Ty Lee would jump at literally every opportunity that sounded even slightly more exciting than being in her previous situation. Suki would often have to physically restrain Sokka from coming with her on most of her journeys to and from the island. On the most recent trip, however, she had overlooked the possibility of him stowing away in a large cauldron in the bottom of their boat. If Suki's fans were razor-sharp, Sokka sneaking up behind her on her walk to her house might have killed him.

Toph had only a limited desire to know what it was Sokka and Suki, Zuko and Mai, or even Aang and Katara, did together when they were alone. She assumed they probably just "Stared into each other's eyes," as Katara was so fond of referencing. "_Relationships must be incredibly boring,_" Toph thought. "_There has got to be something else to it. I am going to have to ask... Well, not Katara. Maybe Suki? Yeah, I'll ask Suki what it is that's so great about being in a relationship with someone_."

A window shutter suddenly slammed its wood against the wood wall it was attached to. Both Toph and Katara jumped, Toph falling halfway off of the couch and Katara dropping two scrolls while hurriedly walking between the couch and the kitchen. Toph was coming back to reality from her daydream as Katara picked up the scrolls, and latched both the open window and the two others in the room closed. Her previous thoughts dissipated as she picked herself up and nestled back onto the couch with her left ankle over her right. She fiddled with her bangs trying to get one uncooperative strand of hair to fall back into place. Toph accomplished her task before crossing her arms and inhaling deeply through her nose and out through her mouth.

"It's raining," Katara asserted blankly, obviously trying to make some type of conversation.

"Yeah," Toph said, somehow mustering a more passive tone than Katara.

The window couldn't have been any more of a telltale sign of the storm around the two benders, but Toph hadn't really thought about it. If she had, she might have replied with a considerably more sarcastic remark. The blind girl simply laid there listening to the now ever-present rain assault the rooftop, drowning out any chance for complete silence.

"_Is rain really that bad?_" Toph pondered, trying to be alone with her thoughts. She would like nothing less than to begin a conversation with Katara. "_I really do hate rain. I mean, I love when it I can just hear it, on the inside listening out. Then it's great. There is nothing more calming than listening to rain all around you while still staying dry. Yeah, I could listen to this all day. Being in rain though? Man, being outside right now; there isn't much worse than being stuck in rain. Just being wet is bad enough, but it almost always makes everything colder too_."

Toph shuddered slightly. "_It's not like it's warm in here. I should really get a blanket or something if I am going to sit here all day. If I move though, Katara might have more incentive to talk to me... Man, this is a problem. The sound of this rain is great though. Maybe I could just sit here for a little while longer and hope she goes out of the room. Yeah, that sounds like the best idea_." Toph breathed in and out deeply, but silently. She wouldn't wait too long for Katara. "_Just a few minutes of this before I give up and get a blanket_." Katara was at a desk looking back and forth between scrolls, occasionally writing something on another scroll on her far right side.

The uncomfortably chilled girl went back to her previous scenario. "_Being on stone roads is bad enough in the rain. Everything is blurred, but at least I can see something. Anything unpaved is horrid. The mud makes it hard enough to walk through, let alone see. I wonder if Katara could stop the rain from hitting the ground. That would be nice on stone roads, but mud? You would actually have to separate the water from the dirt. Uhhg. Why does it have to rain?_" There was a brief pause in her train of thought._ "What do you mean why does it have to rain? You know why it has to rain. Besides, rain is sooo great from the inside! Man this is comfortable! It's still cold though..._"

Toph was used to, but still not overjoyed by her feet being cold. This was one such instance. She knew she could go through the pros and cons of wearing socks, or even shoes, but also how she had gone through those same trains of thought many times before. It always ended up with her concluding that losing what vision she had did not balance out with comfort. On the fourth day after the war Mai had visited Ba Sing Se, taking a break from her palace luxuries and watchful eyes of servants. Mai had brought with her eleven pairs of shoes, and various socks, all of which she requested Toph try. Even as Toph denied each pair, none allowing her to see through them, she succumbed to keeping one pair of socks and shoes, "Just in case."

Toph continued to lay on the couch. There was no breeze in the house, but it was still cold. She was trying to hear individual raindrops, but without much success. She knew that it was getting later in the day, and would be getting colder for that reason alone. Toph heard the window closest to Katara creak open halfway, but shut as slow as it had opened soon afterwards, the wind howling during its open duration. She cringed at the cold breeze that swept over her for a moment.

The blind girl laid, unwavering, for nearly ten minutes. Breaking through her chain of meaningless thoughts something occurred to her; Katara hadn't made a sound in quite some time. She put her left foot on the ground shifting into a type of sitting position with her right foot still on the couch. Toph could hear Katara breathing, most likely through her mouth.

"Katara?"

Toph was dumbfounded that her friend could fall asleep at a desk without alerting her. She thought it must have been because of the background noise muffling any other sound. However, she quickly took advantage of the situation to get up off the couch, and quietly began her walk down the hallway towards her room. Toph reached her room and fumbled around until she remembered where she had thrown her blanket that morning. Without much effort she conjured a mental image of her position in the house while she was leaving the room, remembering that she was facing the first bedroom people occupied whenever they stayed overnight. The rest of the group had the sense to not leave another person as a permanent fixture the house with Toph; she did not want to be babysat. Toph reveled in her independence. If she had thought about it though, she may have realized that over the nearly two months she had been there, she rarely went more than a day without someone visiting the household. The false sense of self-sufficiency seemed to work for both parties.

The newly blanket-clad girl crept back down the hallway and smiled a small smile when she entered the living room. She could still hear Katara's breathing, knowing that she was asleep. Carefully she plopped back down on the couch in her usual casual position, making sure to cover her feet with the blanket. Then, instead of putting her hands behind her head, she put them under the blanket, only having her head jutting out of the insulating covering. She closed her eyes.

"_Still raining,_" Toph asserted weakly to herself. She was finally comfortable, only feeling the warmth under her blanket. She turned on her side facing the couch, with her face nuzzled against the backrest. Toph's thoughts of being outside in the rain contrasted greatly with her current position. "_Just being wet from the rain is so uncomfortable... And not only that, coming back inside from being in the rain is worse half of the time. You finally start to get dry, but the temperature is so much warmer that you really feel freezing. Just being damp everywhere is so irritating_." Slowly, to the sounds of rain peacefully drizzling on the rooftop Toph drifted off to sleep.

* * *

"TOPH!" Katara's voice rang out close to where Toph was.

She rose abruptly from the couch into a half sitting position without moving her legs.

"What?" she said, for a moment still half asleep. "Wait, what's wrong? What time is it?"

"It's dark out, I don't know! I just woke up!" Katara sputtered frantically.

Toph could hear Katara moving around coming towards her, so she got into a full sitting position with her feet on the ground covering her lap with the blanket. As Katara approached her from her right she motioned vehemently.

"Look what I just found in my neck!"

Katara waved something violently in front of Toph.

"Really?" Toph said with apathy, crossing her arms while incorporating a discontented stare.

"It's a needle!" Katara said with agitation and furor. "There was a needle in my neck with something green on the end. I was poisoned Toph! How did this happen?"

"I don't kn-" Toph was cut off.

"I need to do something about this! What if I am dying right now? I probably am dying right now!"

Toph produced an evasive chuckle, relishing her endemic humor.

"So I guess you didn't just fall asleep then, did you?"

Katara was fuming with irritation and fear.

"You mean you were awake when I got knocked out? Why didn't you do something?"

Toph faced Katara with a surprised look on her face.

"Do something? What should I have done? Not only is there no earth in here, but I was on the couch! Besides, you were sitting in direct line of sight from the window. They could have just thrown it at you from outside. You know, I doubt they even poisoned you. They probably just knocked you out and crouched on the window sill to take what they wanted from your desk."

Katara looked over to her desk.

"My pouch!" she exclaimed.

"Your what?"

"My pouch; it's a little bag I keep my money in when I travel. I had it sitting on my desk... I guess you're right, we just got robbed."

Katara looked down at the ground in thought, and soon spoke out to break the short silence.

"At least it stopped raining."

"I suppose," Toph said.

"Well," Katara said transitioning from in front of the couch back to her desk, "I need to go back to finishing these letters. I am sending out reminders to anyone I think might forget about the meeting. This includes you, you know. Remember, everyone will be here in two days."

"I know. It's not like I would forget something like that," Toph feigned.

Katara sat back down at her desk, scribbling away on scrolls while Toph walked down the hallway dragging her blanket on her right. She got to her room and dumped herself onto her bed, draping her blanket over herself in one large motion. The second monthly reunion of everyone Toph cared about was fast approaching. She fell asleep anxious to be able to see everyone together again, just how she wanted it.


	2. Chapter 2

**The Humbling River**

**Chapter II**

* * *

Toph awoke to the sound of silence. Nothing moved in her room in the slightest. She laid in bed for nearly five minutes, trying to make out any sound at all. Occasionally she thought she heard the muffled effect of a patron strolling down a street, though the possibility of her imagining sounds outweighed the evidence of her previous thought. The silence that engulfed her room existed comfortably, without urging any actions, though there was one key thought that stuck out to Toph that convinced her to exaggeratively remove her covering: the uncomfortably wet hell that was rain had ceased.

She sat on the edge of her bed, feet dangling over the edge. Toph began to think about material concepts now that she was gaining a real sense of consciousness, despite having been lying awake in bed. She wondered if anyone else was in the house, but the extremity of the present laconism assured her that she was alone.

The groggy girl cleared her throat, though did not speak. She grumbled something unintelligible. Toph moved over to the long table on the other side of her room where a small amount of clothes lay, and moved a nimble hand over each pile, ultimately not taking up anything in her grasp. She decided to simply wash herself that night, and change clothes in the following morning. It was not that she wanted to, but she knew that Katara would point out to everyone else, at every opportunity she had, what a slob Toph was being. Toph knew that both options were bad, but that cleaning herself and changing clothes were the lesser of the two evils. In the past two months she had been bathing a considerable amount; nearly once every two weeks! She had even been licked by Appa a month ago, who had sneaked up on her from the sky. In her mind that counted as well. Toph couldn't help it though. Being surrounded by water offered nothing but drowning and death.

Exiting her room, Toph allowed her door to swing open gently. She walked down the hallway and into the living room, still not hearing a sound. At this point she was mostly awake, though still at the point in her morning where she was deciding what to do. With the recognition of the kitchen to her left, her foremost thought became of food.

Whenever people stopped in at their house, they always brought food with them. Usually in excess. The main problem with that was that Toph didn't actually know what half of the food was. This was one such occasion where Katara had purchased a large amount of food, mostly for the following day's festivities. Toph's confusion was only elevated by this. She didn't know what food was edible today and what wasn't, let alone what it actually was. Feeling around all the different dishes didn't seem like a hygienic option to Toph, not that she actually cared about such things, though getting her hands sticky was the last thing she wanted. Another awkward situation came to her when she realized that she couldn't actually reach some of the top cabinets of the kitchen. Why anyone would bother to put food so ridiculously high up was beyond her, though she would never put herself in a situation where one could make fun of her height. Later on in the day she promised to bring in some earth to see what was up there; she had a feeling Katara would keep some of the better food away from her.

The best plan of action came to the witty twelve-year-old when she recalled that Katara had asked something of her nearly a week ago. One of the main dishes Katara was preparing was a traditional Southern Water Tribe dish. Though she admitted it didn't even taste good, Katara thought it was a good way to bring a little bit of her culture back into their lives. The reason the dish was a tradition was because of the migrating animals of the Southern Water Tribe. Every ten years, animals of varying levels of exoticness would move around the icy glacier landscape and come close enough to what she believed was civilization to be hunted. The dish was only to be served on a plate of solid hide of an exotic animal, every ten years, in recognition of this repeating cycle of animal migration. The hide is where Toph came in. Katara had charged her with the task of finding something suitable to serve her dish on, and Toph was secretly eager to do something that would benefit the entire group. In all of her days cooped up in the household, mostly alone, she began to feel as though everyone else she knew was considerably more important than her, or at least lead more exciting lives.

Scratching her wrist in thought, she knew that any opportunity to refute this idea was what she wanted most. And if while getting this hide she could also get some decent food, well, that was simply an adornment.

* * *

"Hey, watch it!" Toph barked.

The man who was now passing her on her right returned a disgusted look, but chose not to rebuttal against her remark. Toph hadn't actually been paying attention, but she still didn't feel the need to stand idly by after losing her footing to the man. However, like most quick-encounter situations, her anger was used up quickly and she turned back in her original direction, returning to her standard gait.

Sound reverberated through the air in every direction. A cacophony of voices was not something Toph was particularly fond of, though she was used to it. The interconnecting market streets were often more busy than how they were in Toph's current location. Comfortably fitting two and a half animal-driven vehicles side by side, the roads that merged into the central plaza were packed with people. Toph was out and about in the market nearly every day, and was more than used to the bustle of commerce.

Houses and buildings bordered the roads, most often with stalls of produce or ornaments dotting their edges. Vendors would shout out ridiculous slogans, only attempting to have some word or phrase stick out to a potential customer over the intense atmospheric volume. This was an unusual setting for Toph, as she was actually trying to hear what the salesmen were howling.

For the most part, the blind girl had no idea what the people behind the stalls were selling on any given day. Given this, she didn't normally care what people were selling, as to her it was all useless garbage that was overpriced, or simply not a necessity. Clearly Toph and Katara were at some type of disagreement on this subject.

"Arrow shafts! All classes of weight and size!"

"Brassieres! Minuscule to massive!"

"Soap splashing in your mouth getting you down? Never again, with every flavor of flavored soap, right here!"

"_Seriously?_" Toph nearly said out loud, not two feet away from the speaker. "_I'm not sure if I would call that creative or stupid._"

Toph assumed that she was getting close to the main square. Without having anything that was yelled stick out to her as a possible place to purchase a serving tray, she contemplated getting something to eat before continuing her search.

"Foreign treasures! The rarest of the rare!"

The suddenly excited girl halted where she was, nearly causing a line of new pedestrians to collide with her from behind. She shuffled and quickly moved to the sound of the man of interest. The crowd was thick, but she managed to push through enough of the slender people to get by. Even though she was well below average height, and was in an overly populous mesh of people, she never had the need to stand on her toes in order to see over their heads.

As Toph made her way to the general direction of the dealer, she began to get a sense of what he was like. She could tell he was much older than herself, at least forty, though most likely closer to forty-five judging by his voice. While he spoke with an uncomfortably high tone, it was eloquent enough to be that of a cocky, presumptuous man's. He was calm, and well rehearsed in all respects. Though she couldn't judge his clothing and overall appearance, she believed him to be one that was as well dressed as a merchant could be; more than in the standard rags of passersby. Pompous as he was, he was clearly clever and most likely frugal, as he did not have the tone of a heavy-set individual. The way his voice resounded, he was covered by an overhanging ridge of a type of solid material, possibly protruding from the house behind him.

She was getting close to the front of the throng, practically up to his wide desk of wares. The crowd the man was attracting tended to be much burlier than the standard consumers walking down the large road. Most of them she couldn't simply squeeze by, but had no problem casually elbowing them in the back or sides, knowing there was nothing they could do with justification against a, in comparison, tiny twelve-year-old. As long as she sauntered clear of the masculine women that were gathered, she would have no problems.

"The epitome of commodities is here, and for sale! You need something rare, sparse? See if something might catch your eye!"

Toph arrived at her destination, and sat her hands down on the elongated ledge, using it for support.

"Believe me when I say I've got it! Your agenda might be-"

"I need a big plate," Toph cut him off, coming close to a yell to compete with the staggering volume of background noise.

"What was that young lady?"

"I said I need a big plate. Something made out of an animal. I don't know, really anything that could hold a lot of food."

He stood silently for a lengthy amount of time, clearly staring her down. She knew what he saw.

"It's not that complicated, really. I just need some type of dish-"

"Ah! Yes, yes, I understand what it is you're looking for!" He returned the favor of interrupting. "Just come down here with me, if you please."

The man started a motion to his left, still on the other side of the counter. Toph understood what it was he was doing, and had come into the situation with a suspicion that it could happen, though most salesmen were less indicative in their manner than this. He was clearly proficient in this aspect of his occupation.

Toph followed the side opposite him, coming close to the end of his selection of wares. She stopped where he did, and turned to face him.

"I know you will just love this."

He reached down and picked up a large object that was set horizontally on the table.

"Here, see for yourself."

The man extended his arms as he offered the item to Toph. She received it expecting a large weight based on the size, but when his hands slipped away from under it, it didn't press down on her with nearly as much force as she had been ready for. As soon as it touched her skin, she knew.

"Good, I take it?" The marketer questioned confidently, with a well concealed, oral sneer. He had become overly calm in the last thirty seconds. "Any hide pieces I have are finely tanned to make them as hard as possible, for the insurance of their safety. This particular specimen is a shaving of a lion turtle scale. Ancient it is, and finely decorated."

Toph could feel the work of art in her grasp. It was light, but large. It extended twice as wide and lengthy as she was, and was close to three inches thick. The object curved towards the center, giving it a slight indent. It really would work well as a serving dish. It was clearly unique, having been intricately carved on the bottom. Toph couldn't feel the top without dropping it, but she didn't have to. This wasn't the item for her, and this was an opportunity to do what she did best. The plate was made of stone.

"How much?" Toph replied after a few moments of inspection, looking up in the man's direction.

"For this piece? Oh well, first you must understand how rare this type of work is. Things like this don't just fall into one's collection you know."

Toph stayed silent, having not averted her face.

Realizing that she would not progress the discussion, the vendor mulled over his thoughts during his sentence.

"Well... A fair amount, say... ten gold pieces."

"Really," Toph responded instantaneously, and with no question in her tone.

"Of course! I do believe it is a more than fair price! Like I was saying, this artifact is-"

"An extremely rare lion turtle scale. Yes, yes, silly me. How could I have forgotten?"

With these words Toph started the transformation she deemed most clever. The entirely of the stone began to fold in on itself, starting from the left and right sides.

"What is this?" the man demanded.

The man could only produce a stare into the morphing putty in Toph's hands from that point on. Quickly, the blob was tempered into a perfect cube. Slowly, a slender object appeared out of the block. As more stone was pushed upward, the cube lost height to shape into the object being formed. Eventually a full hand was revealed extending to the beginning of an imaginary arm. The initial cylindrical shape was identified as the center-most of the fingers on the hand; the only one protruding upwards.

Toph stood on her toes, and awkwardly reached up with the sculpture in her grasp, and placed it on the table, finally turning to stride away in the most casual method possible. The merchant offered only wide eyes as an acknowledgement of her actions. Behind the now pride-stricken bender, the sound in the immediate area around the salesman's table had retrogressed into a mumble as people saw what now lay on display in the man's wares.

Before she began her journey back, an idea floated into her consciousness. she turned back to where her masterpiece now stood; the man still gaping. With a flick of her wrist upon contact with the object, it accelerated at a near instantaneous rate, exploding upon impact with the now grunting marketer. The man flew backwards into what could only be his house, causing the newly smashed woodwork to engulf him. As one final plank fell onto the pile, Toph took her leave.

* * *

"Really, I don't care. Just, I don't know, whatever you would recommend."

"Are you sure you don't want to see what we have? I can bring you a menu if..." the woman's voice trailed off. "You know what, I'll just bring something out," she sputtered out, fleeing back to the kitchen.

"That's probably a good idea." Toph assured the woman, recognizing her modest recovery from an uncomfortable situation.

She was sitting cross-legged to allow her feet to touch the stone of the chair, rather than have them sway off its ledge. Her arms never left their intertwining position, letting her left drape over the other. Unlike usual she was able to go the whole day, so far, without having her hair come undone or her cloths get ruined. If not for her size and subsequent age she could have come close to appearing stately.

The room in which Toph was sitting was twice the size of the living room in her home, and had at least eight groups of people seated in various sections. These types of people were easily identifiable, but discontentedly average. The time was meandering its way through the day, approaching the end of standard lunch hour. People in the building were mostly talking post meal. Through strained ears she could make out individual conversations, as nearly every group seemed to be chatting at an unnervingly high volume.

There was not much else for Toph to observe. She was essentially waiting in a stoic sitting position for her food. The conversations were nothing of note, clearly not worth mulling over for more than a second after having heard them. Oddly enough Toph couldn't even smell anything. Having a door in between the kitchen and where she sat was enough to bother her.

Even as she waited, Toph figured she probably shouldn't be getting her hopes up in anticipation of a good meal. In a restaurant such as this, an obligation of free service didn't constitute much, but the thrifty girl figured that she might as well use her resources, lest they go to waste.

The minutes fell upon minutes, and soon there were four easily distinguishable groups left in the eatery. When the kitchen door was finally kicked open, Toph let out an audible breath through her mouth. The waitress carrying a platter of aroma hustled towards her table, and set down a large, single bowl on it before shoving the platter underneath her arm.

"Please do enjoy. Remember miss, this one is on us," the waitress conveyed with much more zeal than necessary.

"Uh huh. Thanks," Toph retorted dismissively.

The waitress, accepting the hint, returned to her sanctuary. Toph started in on her meal; a soup with an interesting combination of smells. She thought she could smell some sort of cleaning solution in it, but the overly hungry girl decided it wasn't worth worrying about. Her first spoonfuls were measured and laggard, considering the questionable nature of the food. After close to a minute, having only taken a few sips of the soup, she concluded that the soup tasted like coffee and bananas. As bad as it sounded, it didn't entirely oppose her sense of taste, though it was a bit more earthy than she would have liked.

Toph didn't expect much different from the restaurant anyways. She knew that they weren't exactly high-class. The reason they owned her a meal wasn't for compensation for a previous meal gone bad. It was for her fixing one of their stone walls after it had been demolished by an unknown suspect's stray projectile boulder. Clearly the felon, who committed such a reprehensible crime, couldn't have been the only earthbender in the area that happened to be walking directly next to the shop at the time.

She finally picked up tempo, and after a few minutes got to the bottom of the bowl. As she was trying to spoon up the remnants of the soup there was another group that stood up from a table, leaving just three left. As the pair of people that had stood up approached the exit, one of the two turned back to the main reception desk, of which a waiter stood behind. She was very much close enough to listen in on their conversation.

"Yes, can I help you?"

"You could. I don't suppose I could speak to the owner?"

"The owner? I do hope your meal went well?"

"Oh, yes, this is a business matter really. The food was just fine."

"I see. Well, if you wait here just a moment I can see if he isn't busy."

Toph had finished her meal, and was at least content, even if she did have a rather foul aftertaste in her mouth. Without actually knowing what was in the soup, she figured that it was probably for the best.

There was nothing she had to wait for, no clean up, no payment, no tip, though there was no appeal greater to her at the time than to sit where she was for a few moments to wear away her bloated feeling. As the receptionist walked back in from what she assumed was the kitchen, a waiter stepped out carrying heavily scented food. It was the last thing she wanted to think about after the massive bowl she had just devoured.

"I'm sorry, but Mr. Jacopo will be busy for the greater portion of the afternoon. He simply instructed me to inform you that he is still interested in your pottery."

At this Toph perked up mildly. It may not have been exactly what she was looking for, but then again, fate might have just decided to bestow the end to her search upon her.

"I see," the customer responded dejectedly. "And he gave no further comment?"

"None other than that he could reschedule later into next week."

"Well then, thank you for your assistance."

The customer was leaving the building faster than she had expected. She got up quickly and pivoted two sharp lefts before reaching the main entrance. Toph could tell that the man hadn't gotten far, though he walked at a much quicker pace than she was used to. She reached him after taking on a nearly jogging speed down the street, though he didn't stop walking.

"Hi. Um, I'm Toph," she began, the closest thing she could accomplish to an introduction. "I was just wonder-"

"I'm sorry, but I don't want to donate."

Toph almost stopped where she was, but then remembered that she had to stay at his side to attempt a conversation.

"No, I'm not asking for a donation," she pointed out with less irritation than she would have liked to have exercised. "I actually kinda', well, kinda' overheard you in the restaurant. I pretty much got that you sell pottery?"

At this, the man stopped, and for the first time looked at his attendant. Quickly, he replied with acutely subtle intrigue.

"I do, among other things. If what you are asking is if I am in the buying business, I tend to stay away from most independent craftsmen."

"Again, that really isn't what I was getting at," Toph growled. "I just want to know if you have anything that is a little more unusual than your average clay."

The assumed entrepreneur finally decided to show some mild interest in the situation, and acted as though he was actually addressing a person. However, the pair, standing in the middle of the street, were entirely diametric to each other. One, standing nearly two feet taller than the other, in formal regalia and arms crossed, the other, in what one would describe as nothing but scruffy clothing, and an awkward stance. From a bystander's point of view, it was an interesting skew of parallels.

"If you really are intent on purchasing, then I recommend you follow me back to my store. In terms of tableware, I like to believe that my collection consists of whatever one could be pursuing," the man stated with pragmatism, incorporating a humble tone which did not convolute the content of his speech. "I am Mr. Lerschind," he concluded.

He was receptive enough to not reach out to shake hands, and instead simply turned back in his original direction, reestablishing his procession down the road. Toph was quick to follow.

Mr. Lerschind led her down the street and away from the restaurant. Taking a left a ways down Toph was lead into a wide but nearly barren street of immense length, much like that of the market's roadways. They walked for close to ten minutes when the man finally stopped a few houses down from a large circular section of road, where a great number of roads intersected, and a tall structure stood erect in the center. He turned to the right into a wooden building, not differing greatly from that of most of the houses in the market district.

"Be careful for the ledge," the businessman warned, stepping through the doorway.

Imperceivable to Toph as she walked into the household, the room lacked any source of artificial lighting. The ceilings were only half a foot tall enough to accommodate the man. At the very least, Toph knew there were at least four rooms in the house, the main one of which she was in being the biggest. It was simple, and had a raised countertop protruding from the ground in the middle, taking up most of the space in the room.

Instead of meandering through the first room they had approached, the owner of the home started down the hallway, which was directly in front of the entrance.

"Let me just get a few things to display. I am sure at least one of the items I have in mind would suit your interests."

The individual seemed sure enough of his intuition to incite Toph into thinking that no more description of her inquiry would be necessary. After a few minutes of what could have only been rummaging through boxes in another room, Mr. Lerschind returned, arms full of slightly curved objects stacked on top of one another. He methodically placed them on the table and began dispersing them down it with great deliberation. Toph, having taken the liberty of claiming a seat on one of the only bar stools at the table, waited for him to finish with his sorting of objects to begin her examination.

"Well," the man said with a deep exhale, "have a look."

Toph started where she was positioned at the table. Picking up a piece, she would feel for anything intricate, or simply what it was made out of. At the very least these ones seemed to be genuine not-made-of-stone works. She realized as she moved through the different plates, ascending up and eventually down the table, that there was an astounding number of different qualities each one had to distinguish them from others. There were the rough and rigid to the nearly morphic in terms of texture. Some had fur in places where others were covered by smooth plating. Each had at least a reasonable amount of uniqueness in context.

Once she had gotten close to the end of the table on the far side of the room, Toph picked up a piece that interested her more than the others. It seemed to fit her criteria most distinctly; a perfectly circular, metallic embroidered plate with a total of five horns protruding from the sides of it. The plate itself was an awkward piece to carry, and she set it down within seconds of holding it, preferring to inspect it from the table. She knew it was what she wanted, though to offer what little courtesy she usually reserved for strangers, Toph viewed the final few plates in the same method she had the many before them. She then started back towards where her seat was.

"Well, I think I know which one I want."

"Oh, so you found one did you? Let me guess. The one on the end here?" Mr. Lerschind questioned with prospect of a sale evident in his voice. "I had seen you spend a bit more time on this one than the others. It's a fine deal, if I do say so."

"Actually no, it's not that one. To be entirely honest, the only reason I stopped on that one was that I thought it might have been made of some type of animal poop."

The room grew to such a reserved silence that Toph thought she may have been able to hear some of her internals, if it weren't for the wind interrupting with its minuscule voice through the open window in the front. The salesman clearly had no intention of responding to her pondery.

"The one I really wanted was this one," Toph remarked, turning and pointing towards her goal.

"I see," Mr. Lerschind stated, unintentionally imitating the voice of one who had just reached a solemn epiphany. "That one was donated to me by a long time customer years and years ago. He had said that it was made using five horns, all from the same animal."

"Wait, all from the same animal? What kind of crazy thing has five horns?" Toph catechized, motioning with her arms, though accidentally bumping a lock on a drawer installed into the counter.

"Well, if I had to guess..." he trailed off, "a deformed horned sheep chamois. Yes, I would have to imagine that's what it was. To be honest though, I am not entirely sure; that's really just my best guess. I was never told its origins."

"I suppose it doesn't really matter. It seems fine enough to me," Toph concluded. "So if you're ready I guess I'm ready too. What do I owe yah?"

Seemingly content with the pace of the proposition, the man crossed his arms in affirmation.

"Like I said, it was merely a donation, so just to entertain my prowess as a decent salesman, how does six gold pieces sound?"

"Sure, whatever you say."

Toph finished her last statement while reaching into her pocket on the side of her pants, followed by the other side, and in the back. After coming to an understanding of the dilemma she was in, Toph, as surreptitiously as possible, rechecked her belongings, finding that she in fact had no belongings, and shifted to an awkward stance.

"You know, actually..."

"Yes, I see. This doesn't need to be uncomfortable. I understand."

"Yeah, I can just leave. Sorry for the trouble," Toph babbled in a rare moment of shame.

With her last sentence she started towards the door.

"Just wait a moment. Let me think about something."

Toph returned to a hopeful mindset of accomplishing her purchase. Mr. Lerschind was simply standing, still with his arms crossed, in a thoughtful position.

"If you don't mind me asking, you aren't afraid of heights, are you?"

Despite the fact that there were much worse things that could be involved in her life, Toph did know that great heights were never on her list of things to get up to. Showing no responsiveness, she inquired.

"What do you mean?"

"How about we just step outside for a moment. This might be better to explain up close."

The pair exited the building and began walking down the street in the opposite direction they had come. There hadn't been many people on the way to his house, and the street was still mostly empty in comparison to its great width and length. They ventured down a short distance towards an expanse where streets intersected and a massive, hard to miss tower stood. Mr. Lerschind walked directly up to it. He placed his hand on it as a silent invitation for Toph to follow suit.

"Here is one of the city's many advertisement spires. Its sole purpose is to display intriguing slogans or whatever one wants to pay to have displayed. You might be wondering how exactly one is to get a new sign up there. Well, the obvious answer to that is earthbending."

"Oh, well that's easy then!" Toph remarked, much less concerned about the situation.

"Actually, that isn't quite what I had in mind. You see, this tower is hollowed out. I really have no idea why someone would build a hollowed out tower with no designated purpose for the inside, but nonetheless it was done."

The man removed his hand from the side of the structure and gestured widely.

"This tall construct might seem stalwart and sturdy, but the actual problem is much more imposing than it sounds. And to be as guileless as possible, there is a pack of rodents at the top of the tower chewing through a little hole they have made, and have started eating the bottoms of the signs."

"So what is it you want me to do about it then? Destroy the whole tower to get rid of some rats?" Toph questioned a bit more demanding than she would have liked.

"No, no, of course not! You do remember what I had said about it being hollowed out? I simply need you to climb to the top of the tower, from the inside, and get rid of the rodents. I would consider that a payment in full."

"Oh," Toph stated apathetically.

After a few moments the quiescence faded into Mr. Lerschind's voice.

"Well, if you are up for it, you might as well get going. Evening is coming more quickly than you might think, and based on the fact that there are no residential areas around here, I would imagine that you don't live too close."

"I guess so," she responded after taking a deep breath.

Mr. Lerschind started moving around the pillar, and Toph removed her hand from the side of it to follow.

"The entrance is just on the other side. Right as you walk in there is a ladder that will take you all the way up to the top. When you get to the top, just put all of those rodents into this bag," he said, extending his hand while holding a sack nearly as large as Toph. "Just drop it down to the bottom. I will worry about any mess it makes upon impact before you return to the ground."

Remarkably unaffected, Toph merely took the bag, bunching it up.

"So what then?"

"Come back to my store and you can have your plate."

They finished moving around the tower, and Toph reached for the door.

"I'm sure you don't need to be told it, but do be careful," he added with a smile.

Toph acknowledged his gesture and moved inside the structure, closing the door behind her.

From the outside, Toph could tell that it was a large piece of construction to begin with, easily discerned as tall and wide in general. However, from the inside it was another animal. It was clearly very tall, as she couldn't even hear the noises she knew she should be hearing at the top. In addition, it felt cramped, as though the walls were immensely thick. This was not at all a situation Toph wanted to be in.

The real problem for her was in fact the height. Despite the prevalence of the phobia, Toph certainly had a unique reason for hating the distance between her and the ground so much. Despite this, she knew there was really no going back out that door without going through with what she had planned.

The first twenty-five or so rungs on the ladder weren't much of a problem for Toph. Forgetting the agonizingly slow pace she was taking, she was at least making progress. It wasn't until getting about halfway up that she really knew how much she hated her situation.

A mere minor misplacement of a foot propagated a series of thoughts.

Foremost, Toph recalled upon her most prominent experience with heights, on the night of Sozin's Comet. It was nothing more than a flash of a memory, thought it caused her to immediately find her footing.

Secondly, after being brought back to the real world, she realized how high up she was. Toph had been climbing for minutes, and her foot did not touch the ground when it didn't latch onto a rung, this being a horrible realization for her.

Finally, as a result of her other two thoughts, Toph remembered what it was she was doing. She was climbing a ladder to kill rats and get a plate. This was clear to her. Though the most important part of it all was that she was doing it because someone wanted her to. She in fact was not sitting on a couch all day, doing nothing. With purpose came Toph's motivation.

"_I'm just climbing a ladder. This isn't even a big deal,_" she assured herself while carefully scratching her right wrist, holding onto the rung with her right hand using much greater force.

Upon returning to her previous state of mind, Toph continued up the tower. In her mind, it was no time at all before she reached the top. She could hear only a total of three distinct animals from where she was. Still holding on to the bag with her left hand, Toph lashed out with her right, catching a rodent by surprise and forcing it into the sack. It was much smaller than she had anticipated based on the size of the container that Mr. Lerschind had given her.

After reaching out with more care than the first try, the temporary exterminator realized that the rodents must not have been able to move very quickly, as the second was just as easy to grab as the first. Knowing this, the third followed suit, and was placed into the bag. Based on nothing other than impulse, Toph dropped the bag directly after typing the top closed, letting it plummet a great distance down.

"_You know, even though he did tell me just to drop it, I might have been able to carry it down..._" Toph let her thoughts drift, but quickly dismissed her ideas as she started down. It was a much quicker journey the other way on the ladder.

When she could tell she was nearly at the bottom, her foot touching the ground startled her more than anything within recent memory. Much to her surprise, not only was the bag gone, but the floor was pleasantly dry. Toph could only assume that the bag had contained any foul fluids that may have left the animals. Opening and closing the door for the second time, Toph journeyed to the salesman's shop.

Disregarding her previously questionable courtesy, Toph swung the door open and let out an over the top,

"Hello?"

Mr. Lerschind, sitting at the counter facing away from the entrance, was clearly startled, whipping around and letting out a sigh as he saw the intruder.

"Yes yes, I am right here," he replied immediately. "I see you got the job done."

"Yeah, well, I think I can handle a couple of rats."

"Yes, I am sure it was no problem for you. Anyways, I won't keep you waiting. Here's your plate," he said, handing over what had been on his right side on the counter.

Toph grasped it the best she could, though she had already known that the sheer size of it might pose a problem for her on her walk home. Despite this, she wanted no assistance in the matter, and the salesman had picked up on this quality from the beginning. Not wasting any time, Toph began staggering outside, holding the object with the greatest equivocation she could muster.

"Thanks again," she divulged to the best of her ability.

"It was my pleasure. It's always nice to find customers who are willing to do anything to get what they are looking for."

With all that had just preceded in the afternoon and early evening, Toph was content to walk home with a smile on her face; a feature too often missed in recent months.


End file.
